evidence on punishment preferences, in which subjects reveal a heterogeneous preference for punishing wrongdoers, our model … identifies circumstances in which “punitive” individuals (with stronger-than-average punishment preferences) will self …-select into law enforcement jobs that offer the opportunity to punish (or facilitate the punishment of) wrongdoers. Such “punitive …

We evaluate whether California's state proposition 47 impacted state violent and property crime rates. Passed by the …-level crime rates that exploit heterogeneity in the effects of the proposition on local criminal justice practices. We find little … evidence of an impact on violent crime rates in the state. Once changes in offense definitions and reporting practices in key …

Criminal law and economics rests on the expectation that deterrence incentives can be employed to reduce crime. Prison … face potential punishment when stealing, or they can steal without deterrence. We confirm Gary Becker’s deterrence …

known about the effects of private police on crime. The current study examines the relationship between a privately …-funded university police force and crime in a large U.S. city. Following an expansion of the jurisdictional boundary of the private … police force, we see no short-term change in crime. However, using a geographic regression discontinuity approach, we find …

lower the deterrence of crime because such rewards diminish the disutility of imprisonment. I demonstrate that, despite this …

local crime rates. We assess the effects of a recent reform in California that caused a sharp and permanent reduction in the … violent crime and evidence of modest effects on property crime, auto theft in particular. These effects are considerably … considerably lower. We corroborate theses cross-county results with a synthetic-cohort analysis of state crime rates in California …